Building the Strongest Undead Empire from Scratch - Chapter 34

Chapter 34: Evil tree spirit
Soon, Arthur flew back with Alex, and by then, the undead had already begun crossing the swamp.

Arthur, carrying Alex, circled in the sky, keeping an eye on the surroundings. Half the battle strength against the Goblins relied on the bone beast werewolves, but unfortunately, they couldn’t fly and had to wait to cross the swamp.

A Skeleton Soldier at the forefront of the swamp stepped on a branch on the ground.

Suddenly, the ground of the swamp began to shake, and branches around wildly thrashed as a huge tree monster made of black wood from the swamp emerged. It had four limbs, each made of thick wood.

The tree monster’s size was second only to Arthur, dwarfing all other undead.

The tree monster, likely disturbed by the Skeleton Soldier, lifted a wooden claw and smashed it down on the Skeleton Soldier, scattering its bones in all directions.

“What the hell is that?!”

Since Arthur was flying low, Alex saw everything clearly. The skeletons were slowed down by the terrain of the swamp, while the tree monster, with its massive body, seemed unaffected by the swamp.

The tree monster began attacking the invaders, quickly scattering several undead, who were slowly reassembling.

This was clearly a high-level creature. Alex instinctively wanted to check the monster’s stats but realized she couldn’t use her features outside her castle territory.

“Never mind, let’s beat it first. We can’t let this thing stop the undead army, especially since dawn isn’t far off.”

“Arthur, take it down!”

At the queen’s command, Arthur dove down.

“Yikes, slow down!”

Such sudden movements always caught Alex off guard.

Arthur unleashed a breath of dragon onto the tree monster’s massive body. Its large size meant it couldn’t react quickly.

However, the tree monster wasn’t completely frozen; perhaps it was too big, and instead, Arthur’s dragon breath enraged it. Countless branches extended from its thick wooden limbs, thrashing wildly around.

Alex watched from above. Only the level 9 bone beast werewolves could barely withstand the tree monster’s strike, but they were also thrown back, while the other undead were shattered.

Commanding level!

And it was a night-time double attribute boost Commanding level!

Only a Commanding level creature could nearly withstand Arthur’s dragon breath unscathed.

Greenbean hadn’t mentioned a Commanding level tree monster in the swamp. That cunning goblins had deceived her.

But this wouldn’t make Alex retreat. Since the tree monster was likely afraid of fire…

“My turn to shine!”

“Arthur, get close!”

As Arthur dove near the tree monster, Alex raised her hand and unleashed a Black Flame Blast, then Arthur carried Alex swiftly upwards to avoid the tree monster’s counterattack.

It was like a scene from a bomber movie.

The Black Flame Blast hit the tree monster’s front limb, creating a large hole and the flames fiercely burned at the edges of the hole.

Within seconds, the tree monster’s limb broke off, and it fell into the swamp, its severed limb turning to ash.

?!

Alex suddenly realized that her dark magic was particularly effective against the tree monster; even Arthur’s dragon breath hadn’t done much, but her Black Flame Blast had obliterated its limb.

Double strike!

Triple strike!

Fourfold joy!

Alright, Alex had spent 40 Mana Points, and now all four limbs of the tree monster were gone, with black flames still burning rapidly at the wounds.

The tree monster now lay motionless in the swamp.

[Congratulations, you have successfully killed a level 1 Commanding level evil tree spirit, earning 400 experience points (double drop).]

It’s dead!

So, this creature was called an evil tree spirit, definitely Commanding level!

Alex quickly ceased her magic, otherwise, the corpse would burn up too.

Arthur landed, and Alex carefully climbed down from his back, her little boots stepping into the foul-smelling swamp water.

Alex approached the evil tree spirit, ready to use her summoning magic, though she wondered how much combat power it could have without its limbs.

But it was still Commanding level!

Alex activated the magic in her left eye, but the evil tree spirit showed no reaction.

[Summoning failed!]

[Failure reason: Mud swamp derivative, no soul.]

Huh?

What a loss, damn, it can’t be summoned. I thought I could have a Commanding level force…

Alex felt disappointed, but she also learned from the prompt that creatures without souls apparently couldn’t be summoned as undead.

Alex quickly checked if it could be Disassembled.

Phew, thankfully, Alex breathed a sigh of relief.

“Disassemble!”

Not being in her territory meant she had to manually Disassemble, lucky it was just one; otherwise, it would be a cumbersome task. But within the castle’s range, she could batch Disassemble and even auto-recover to the Warehouse.

[Congratulations Lord, you have successfully Disassembled the evil tree spirit’s corpse, obtaining the evil tree spirit suit.]

The Commanding level corpse had no magic crystal or Essence Shard, which surprised Alex. Most importantly, it was a tree spirit! Disassembling the corpse didn’t yield food, at least some wood, right?

The evil tree spirit’s corpse disappeared, leaving behind three pieces of equipment: a helmet, a chestplate, and leg armor.

This must be the suit. Let’s check it.

[Equipment name: Evil Tree Spirit Suit (3/3)]

[Equipment level: Commanding level]

[Set effect: Increases the wearer’s defense to Commanding level, Agility +10 points, Stamina +5 points.]

[Note: Extremely afraid of fire.]

Another unseen thing!

Unexpectedly, this world’s equipment was divided into sets and individual pieces. Alex remembered that the equipment she had obtained before didn’t even have a name, just a level, let alone any attribute bonuses.

This was a good item, just… a bit ugly. Alex felt if she wore it, it might be a bit hard to accept.

“You wear it!”

Alex pointed to the level 9 bone beast werewolves, saying that since items Disassembled outside the territory couldn’t be auto-recovered to the warehouse, it was better to let the level 9 bone beast werewolves wear it, which might allow it to go toe-to-toe with the Goblin Commanding.

The bone beast werewolves struggled to put on the suit, and although it looked odd, the attributes indeed increased, making this kind of suit seem more suitable for humanoid creatures.

The bone beast werewolves, although humanoid, were too bulky in the upper body.

The surrounding Skeleton Soldiers’ bones also reassembled, and the skeletons stood up again.

“Keep moving!”

Beating this tree spirit had wasted another half hour. By the time they crossed the swamp to reach the Goblin tribe, Alex estimated there was just over an hour until dawn. They had to hurry.

Alex lifted her foot and looked at the sole, covered in black mud and stinking water.

“Disgusting.”